Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

“Yes,” Bella said. “Can’t you recognise her?”

Sure enough, when Arnie took a closer look he saw that one of the bird’s legs was withered.

Hoki began to dive bomb her audience, whistling and giggling at every pass. “I could get used to this!” She came in for a landing on Bella’s right shoulder, stalled, made contact, almost slipped off but managed to steady herself on her good foot. She began to preen Bella’s hair.

“Hmmn,” Hoki said. “Guess who didn’t wash behind her ears this morning.”

Bella reached up to Hoki and enclosed her in both hands. She brought Hoki face to face so that they were looking at each other eye to eye.

“Oh what’s the use,” Bella sighed. “You always do exactly what you want to! Are you ready for your great journey, Sister?”

“Yes,” Hoki warbled.

Bella was weeping, rubbing her cheeks against Hoki. “I love you, Sister.”

“Stop crying or else I’ll get too waterlogged to fly,” Hoki said.

Bella smiled sadly. “Now there’s an idea.” She kissed Hoki on the beak, took a deep breath, opened her arms and, shouting to split the sky, launched Hoki into the air. “Go now.”

Hoki flew up to the ripped sky, stilled, waited for her moment, then went in — and vanished.

Yes, darlings , the mother pouakai said, pudding.

Cheeping, stumbling, cawing and slashing at each other, the pouakai’s three chicks advanced on Skylark. But they were hesitant, because unlike the blindworms this strange bait darted across to the other side of the nest. “You bite me,” Skylark threatened, “and I’ll bite you right back.” The baby chicks looked up at the mother pouakai, puzzled. She purred to them.

Food is like that, children. Sometimes you have to catch it on the wing.

Reassured, they started to hunt Skylark again. “Stay away from me you skinheads,” she said. The baby chicks were thrilled at the fun of it all, especially when the strange bait again leapt over their heads and flew out of their reach. And when the strange bait did it a third time, they chortled with glee. What a great game this was.

It wasn’t a game to Skylark. Whimpering, with heart pounding, she resumed sawing at the tether. Another strand gave way. Three left. But how much time did she have left? In desperation, Skylark looked up at the mother pouakai. “If I promise not to eat another Kentucky fried chicken,” she asked, “will you let me go?”

The pouakai roared with anger.

“I didn’t think you would,” Skylark said.

Skylark wiped at her tear-stained face with a wing. The baby chicks were right on top of her now, glaring down. One of them made a sharp jab with its beak and Skylark yelled in pain.

“Do that again and I’ll sock you in the eye,” she yelled. The pouakai pushed the chicks forward irritably.

Why are you afraid, babies? It’s just a little brown bird.

The chicks advanced once more. Skylark tried to get away. The tether would not stretch any further. “This is it,” Skylark said to herself. “Bye bye world. Goodbye Mum.” She closed her eyes tight. Who wants to see Death approaching? As she did so, however, she seemed to see Cora tossing and turning in her hospital bed. And what was Cora saying to her?

“Skylark O’Shea, you’ve forgotten everything I’ve told you, haven’t you! A girl should never leave home without a Broadway tune in her purse. A show tune is just the thing when you’re in a jam! Whenever that happens, sing, Skylark, sing.”

Sing? What a joke. Or shall I give it a try anyway? Skylark thought.

She cleared her throat, opened her beak and remembered some of Cora’s dreadful Broadway show music.

“The hills are alive with the sound of music,

With songs they have sung for a thousand years …”

The notes were like a string of pearls, cascading across the velvet sky. I didn’t realise you had such a terrific voice , Arnie had said. The notes shone, gleaming with lustre and loveliness, carrolling out of that terrifying desolate place. When you open out the throttle Skylark, you can really soar . But was it working? No. The chicks were on top of Skylark again, and this time there would be no stopping them.

But what was this? The mother pouakai began a throbbing growl. The song seemed to have penetrated into the dark maze of her brain, whizzing across the synapses and short-circuiting all the usual connections until it hit the pleasure centre in the left hemisphere. There, a small explosion sent warm signals back to the mother pouakai. Her eyes widened with joy, she swatted her chicks away and peered down at this surprising little bird. Swaying to the song, she opened her mouth:

Da heels ar aloiv wiv da sarn or moozeec …

The voice was like a trumpet, brazen and baritonal, and so powerful that it knocked Skylark backwards. What had happened? Some long-ago writer had said something about music having the power to soothe the savage beast. Was that what was happening?

Yup and yessirree. “Oh Mum, it worked,” Skylark sobbed, frantic with relief. Bewitched by the beauty of Skylark’s voice, the mother pouakai gathered her chicks to her and prodded Skylark with a wicked claw.

More! More !

“So you want a monster karaoke sing-along, do you?” Skylark asked. “Okay, you’ve got it.”

With that, she began going through her repertoire of show songs. From Sound of Music she went on to My Fair Lady. The chicks imitated their mother, bobbing their heads and swaying along with the words. It was weird. It was awful. Like the mother pouakai, they opened their throats, trying to imitate Skylark’s sounds. What came out was a cacophony of brays, yells, trills and howls.

“Orl oi wont ees a woom sumwear

far awoiy frum da coal noit ear …”

The mother pouakai gave a gasp, crowed with joy, decapitated one of the last remaining blindworms and fed it to the chicks.

Sweeties, aren’t you just clever little things?

Skylark took the opportunity to saw through the tether again. Only two more strands to go, and then a sudden dash for that hole in the nest, and —

She was exhausted, but she knew that if she stopped singing she was a goner. From My Fair Lady she went on to Oklahoma , thankful at last for her mother’s musical tastes. When the chips were down, Mum’s show songs were coming in handy after all.

Except that while Skylark knew the tunes, she didn’t know all the words. “Oh Mum, why didn’t I listen to you more closely when you were singing your songs? I promise you if I get out of this alive I’ll pay more attention and never laugh at you again.” Ah well, she’d just have to make up the lyrics.

Did the mother pouakai notice? A flicker of suspicion shone in her eyes, and she showed Skylark her fanged teeth.

Worse was to come. Skylark was ready to drop with fatigue and she was running out of tunes.

She had no choice but to repeat herself. The mother pouakai cuffed her sternly with her sharp claws — and, oh no, some of her high notes went sour, curdled and decidedly flat. The pouakai became very cross.

You’ll have to do better than that, dearie.

Quickly Skylark sawed through the last two strands of the tether. Just in time. The mother pouakai recognised “Do-re-mi”, and as everybody in the whole world knows, there are only so many repetitions of that song anybody can take. Ruthlessly and with glittering eyes, the pouakai nodded to her chicks.

Party’s over, babies. Go get her.

The chicks were ravenous. Hopping, snapping and half flying they rushed over to Skylark for the kill. With a cry, Skylark lunged out of their way. The tether snapped and she was free. The mother pouakai spread her wings to stop the little brown bird from gaining flight, and looked bewildered to find herself outwitted. Where had she gone?